That was the second wave of Covid, so I would finish online schooling and go straight to polo and start riding. "I used to go to polo like twice or thrice every day. In December 2020, he left home in Ibadan one early morning and went to the local polo club, where his father had been president at one point. He was at boarding school in the UK when the lockdowns began in 2020, and he returned to Nigeria. Ige started learning to play polo during the Covid-19 pandemic. This, he believes, will open up earning and glory opportunities for Africans like the young deprived grooms, who could then go on to dominate the game as many Africans have in international football and basketball. He hopes that horse owners and professional polo clubs around the world will someday start looking to places like Nigeria for quality players. "As you rise in polo, people start looking for you, and they will be paying you to play for them." "They bring Argentine players to play at the Lagos tournament," Ige says. The handful of polo clubs in Nigeria include those in cities like Kano, Katsina and Jos in the north, and Port Harcourt in the south.īut the most popular is in the commercial capital Lagos, which hosts an annual two-week tournament that attracts a mix of local professionals and amateurs, plus renowned professionals from other countries. But they are excluded from the game because of their class. But the grooms spend more time with the horses and tend to play better," Ige says. "Most of the horses in Nigeria are owned by wealthy people who regard polo as a pastime, and take time off making money to play. He acknowledges that polo is an expensive sport with an elitist image but thinks a higher profile will bring more investment and more accessibility. Ige notes, however, that similar backgrounds have not hindered the rise and progress of African footballers, who are often plucked from the continent to play internationally for big bucks. The grooms are typically from rural and deprived backgrounds, poorly educated, and cannot afford to own a horse. Even in Ibadan, you see players and say: 'Wow! You should be playing next-level polo.' But there is no awareness."Īt the Ibadan Polo Club, where Ige learnt how to play, he describes the outstanding skill of many young grooms employed to take care of the horses, but who will probably never be celebrated for their ability. "There are a lot of skilful players in Nigeria. "I know a handful of Africans my age who play polo, but everyone plays football, everyone plays basketball," Ige says. "Every time I tell people that I play polo, they say: 'You come from Nigeria and you play polo?' Now Ige is on a mission to turn the world's attention to the possibility of more young Nigerians playing professional polo on the world stage. He also recently won the coveted most valuable player (MVP) award at a prestigious polo tournament in his home city of Ibadan, south-west Nigeria. Ige got over his phobia and is now the only black player on the polo team at the UK's University of Kent. Not exactly the best start for an aspiring polo player - a sport which involves charging around on a horse while hitting a ball with a large mallet.īut his father's love of the sport finally drew the 20-year-old student in. A childhood accident on horseback had left Nigerian Baba Ige terrified of horses.
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